Police Clearance Certificate (PCC)
Apostille in India
A PCC is the document most often needed under time pressure, because it is usually the last item a visa or PR file is waiting on — and because many PCCs carry a validity window at the destination end. It comes from one of two places in India, the Regional Passport Office or the local police commissioner, and which one you hold changes nothing about the apostille route but a great deal about how fast you can replace it if something goes wrong.
All-in price
₹2,100per document
Processing
3–7 working days
plus courier transit
Check this first
An apostille only works for Hague Convention countries.
There are 130 Contracting Parties as of 30 June 2026. If your police clearance certificate is going to the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Malaysia, Iraq or Iran, an apostille is not valid — you need embassy attestation instead, which is a different process. Check your destination before you order.
Check your destination countryWho Issues an Indian Police Clearance Certificate (PCC)
Issuing Authority
Regional Passport Office (RPO) through Passport Seva, or the Commissioner of Police / district police for a locally-issued certificate
A police clearance certificate issued by this authority is a public document, which means it goes straight to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate for pre-authentication — no notary step.
How the SDM Route Works for a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC)
Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM)
3–7 working daysThe SDM verifies the issuing authority's signature and attests the certificate.
Ministry of External Affairs
1–2 working days after depositThe MEA verifies the SDM signature against its records and affixes the apostille sticker with its QR code. The MEA accepts no document directly from an individual, so we deposit through an MEA-authorised collection channel.
Does a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) need notarisation first?
No. A police clearance certificate issued by Regional Passport Office (RPO) through Passport Seva is a public document, so the SDM attests it directly and no Notary Public is involved. Notarisation applies to privately-made documents — affidavits, powers of attorney, employer letters and certified copies — where there is no government signature for the SDM to verify. If an agency tells you your police clearance certificate must be notarised first, ask them why.
SDM or State Home Department?
Personal documents can be pre-authenticated by either the SDM or the State Home Department. We default to the SDM because it is materially faster, and because the slower route rarely buys the customer anything. The exception matters though: some destination countries and some receiving institutions specifically require Home Department attestation, and getting that wrong means running the whole process again.
| Pre-authentication authority | Typical time | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| SDM Our default | 3–7 days | The standard route for personal documents |
| State Home Department | 10–20+ days | Where a destination or institution specifically requires it |
Tell us the destination country and the receiving institution when you order and we will confirm which route yours needs before anything is submitted. If it needs the Home Department, we will say so — quoted on request.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille by State
The SDM is a district-level officer, so the office that pre-authenticates your police clearance certificate follows the district where it was issued — not where you live now. The Home Department alternative is state-level. Both routes end at the same MEA counter, and our price is the same from every state.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille in Telangana
- Issued by
- GHMC or the relevant municipality / gram panchayat
- Home Department route
- General Administration Department, Government of Telangana (Hyderabad)
Hyderabad births are registered by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. A hospital-issued discharge slip is not a birth certificate and cannot be apostilled — the GHMC-issued certificate is the one that can.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille in Andhra Pradesh
- Issued by
- The municipal corporation, municipality or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- General Administration Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh (Amaravati)
Records for births before the 2014 bifurcation may sit with the authority in the district as it then stood. Tell us the district and year and we will confirm which office holds it.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille in Maharashtra
- Issued by
- BMC in Mumbai; the relevant municipal corporation or gram panchayat elsewhere
- Home Department route
- Home Department, Government of Maharashtra (Mumbai)
Mumbai civil records are issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Documents registered in Pune, Nagpur or Nashik follow their own corporations, not BMC.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille in Karnataka
- Issued by
- BBMP in Bengaluru; the relevant municipal body elsewhere
- Home Department route
- Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Government of Karnataka (Bengaluru)
Bengaluru records come from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. Degrees from Karnataka universities take the HRD route rather than the SDM route — that is a different service, quoted on request.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille in Tamil Nadu
- Issued by
- Greater Chennai Corporation, or the municipality / panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Public (Political) Department, Government of Tamil Nadu (Chennai)
Tamil Nadu civil records are commonly issued in Tamil. Where the receiving authority abroad requires English, a certified translation is needed — the apostille does not translate anything.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille in Kerala
- Issued by
- The local self-government body — corporation, municipality or panchayat
- Home Department route
- General Administration (Political) Department, Government of Kerala (Thiruvananthapuram)
Kerala has among the highest volumes of documents going abroad, much of it to Gulf states. Several of those — the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait — are not Hague parties, so an apostille has no effect there and embassy attestation is required instead.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille in Gujarat
- Issued by
- The municipal corporation or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Home Department, Government of Gujarat (Gandhinagar)
Documents issued in Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara each come from their own municipal corporation. Confirm which body issued yours before ordering a fresh copy.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille in Punjab
- Issued by
- The municipal corporation, council or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Department of Home Affairs and Justice, Government of Punjab (Chandigarh)
Chandigarh is a Union Territory administered separately from Punjab and Haryana. If your document was issued in Chandigarh itself, the UT administration holds it, not the Punjab department.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille in Haryana
- Issued by
- The municipal corporation or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Home Department, Government of Haryana (Chandigarh)
Gurugram and Faridabad records come from their own municipal corporations. As with Punjab, documents issued in Chandigarh itself follow the UT administration.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille in Uttar Pradesh
- Issued by
- The Nagar Nigam, Nagar Palika or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Home Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow)
Late-registered births are common in UP and the certificate will say so. That does not prevent an apostille, but some receiving authorities ask for supporting evidence alongside it — tell us if yours is late-registered.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille in Rajasthan
- Issued by
- The municipal corporation, council or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Home Department, Government of Rajasthan (Jaipur)
Rajasthan issues many civil records in Hindi. Where the destination requires English, budget for a certified translation in addition to the apostille.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille in Madhya Pradesh
- Issued by
- The Nagar Nigam, Nagar Palika or gram panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Home Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal)
Indore and Bhopal records come from their own municipal corporations. Documents from smaller districts follow the local body that registered them.
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille in West Bengal
- Issued by
- Kolkata Municipal Corporation, or the municipality / panchayat of registration
- Home Department route
- Home and Hill Affairs Department, Government of West Bengal (Kolkata)
Kolkata civil records are issued by the KMC. Bengali-language certificates need a certified translation where the destination requires English.
We do not publish state office addresses here because they change and a stale address is worse than none — check the current one on your state portal, or just send the document to us and we will route it. Stamp-paper values and notary charges are set by the state and vary; we confirm those at order.
What about e-Sanad?
Passport-office PCCs are among the better-covered document types on e-Sanad, but coverage still depends on the issuing RPO and on whether the receiving authority abroad accepts a digital verification. Most immigration authorities still ask for the physical sticker. Check esanad.nic.in for your issuer.
e-Sanad is the government's own free platform for digitally verifying documents from onboarded issuing authorities. Where it covers your document and your destination accepts it, it is genuinely the better option and we will tell you so. It is not a replacement for a physical apostille sticker in most cases.
What a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille Costs
Government feesAt cost MEA apostille ₹50 + authorised-channel collection ₹84 + scanning ₹3/page | ₹143 |
Veritas service fee SDM pre-authentication, authorised-channel deposit, handling and tracking | ₹1,957 |
| Total per document | ₹2,100 |
Courier Quoted before payment, charged at what it actually costs | At cost |
The same ₹2,100 applies to every personal document we handle, whatever its page count. Most sites in this market either publish no figure at all or put their calculator behind an email form — on searches where the whole intent is to find out what it costs. Government fees are reproduced from mea.gov.in and passed through at cost. See the full charges breakdown.
Why People Apostille a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC)
Work visas and employment
Employers and immigration authorities in Hague countries routinely require an apostilled PCC before a work permit is issued.
Permanent residence
Canada, Australia and New Zealand PR applications all require police certificates from every country of residence, apostilled where the destination asks for it.
Long-stay and residence permits
Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands commonly ask for a recent apostilled PCC as part of a residence-permit file.
Professional registration abroad
Medical councils, nursing boards and legal regulators frequently require an authenticated police certificate for licensure.
Which Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Do You Actually Have?
This is where applications fail, and it is almost never the apostille itself. Find your case below before you courier anything — a rejected document costs a full second run, not a correction.
Passport office issued (RPO)
Obtained through Passport Seva against your passport. The most widely accepted form, and generally the fastest to replace if a destination rejects it for age.
Police commissioner issued
Issued locally by the district police or commissionerate, often for a specific stated purpose. Fully apostillable, but check that your destination accepts a local certificate rather than specifically an RPO one.
PCC with a validity window at the destinationOften rejected
An apostille does not expire, but the underlying PCC often does in the eyes of the receiving authority — three or six months is common. Sequence the apostille so the certificate is still fresh when it is filed, not when it is issued.
PCC naming a specific countryOften rejected
Some PCCs are issued for a named destination. If yours names a country you are no longer applying to, the receiving authority may decline it. Confirm before apostilling.
Not sure which you have? Send photos on WhatsApp — we check before you courier anything, and we will tell you if the answer is that we cannot help.
What to Send Us
The original PCC issued by the Regional Passport Office or the police
A photocopy of the passport (photo and address pages)
An authorisation letter where someone else is submitting on your behalf
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) Apostille — Common Questions
How long does a PCC apostille take in India?
Does a police clearance certificate need SDM attestation before apostille?
Can I apostille a PCC while I am living abroad?
Is an apostilled PCC valid for the UAE?
How much does PCC apostille cost in India?
Hague Convention figures verified against theHCCH status tableon 30 June 2026. Government fees from mea.gov.in, same date.
Ready to Apostille Your
Police Clearance Certificate (PCC)?
₹2,100 per document, 3–7 working days processing. We check your document for free before you courier anything.
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